bareback

UK/ˈbɛəbæk/US/ˈbɛɚbæk/

adverbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,849 of 15,258neutral

Bareback means riding a horse with no saddle. Ride bareback, bareback riding, bareback across the field.

It is harder and closer at once: without a saddle the rider grips with the legs and feels every movement, which is why it is used in teaching seat and balance. Circus bareback riding is a discipline of its own. Note that the word is simply bare plus back, and that it works as both adjective and adverb.

Definitions of bareback

1adverbbarebackRiding a horse with no saddle.B2+
“The children rode bareback along the beach, holding on to the horses' manes.”

bareback is a way of riding.

Where it comes from

Bare plus back, a plain English compound describing the horse rather than the rider.

From bare + back.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

bareback in the wild

Proponents of bareback riding argue that riding in this fashion is natural, allows considerable communication with the horse, and improves a rider's balance.
Bareback riding
Over time, it is more fatiguing to both horse and rider to ride bareback.
Bareback riding
A pickup rider is a person on horseback who works at a rodeo in the rough stock competitions of bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding.
Pickup rider
Mark Garrett is an American former professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bareback bronc riding.
Mark Garrett

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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